Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Blood pressure medication has several side effects and I have experienced quite a few of them. If your blood pressure is hovering around 140/90 you need to make some changes to your lifestyle otherwise you will either be put on blood pressure medication or worse suffer a heart attack or stroke.

Here are five tips that will help you lower, control or eliminate hypertension.

1. Walk thirty minutes everyday. Every time you walk you cause the arteries in the limbs you are working to widen or open up. The blood vessels must do this in order to supply muscles with the appropriate nourishment to function.

The inner lining of the blood vessels release a chemical that causes the blood vessels to widen. If you are sedentary and sitting most of the day get up when you can and move your body.

2. Limit your coffee intake to two cups a day. Caffeine causes a temporary rise in blood pressure levels 20 -40 minutes after consumption. The caffeine causes the heart to beat faster and if you sitting and not moving too much blood is pumped into the blood vessels and arteries. This leads to an increase in pressure levels within the blood vessels.

If you drink lots of coffee you are conditioning the body to be in an elevated blood pressure state. This leads to hypertension.

3. Drink a lot of water. It is very important to avoid dehydration. One thing you can do is have a cup of water every hour at work. This should give you four to six cups of water a day.

4. Significantly reduce your salt intake to be below 2400mg a day. Make sure you check food labels when grocery shopping. Look to get foods that have less than 200mg of salt peer serving. Did you know a certain famous hamburger from the golden arches has 1200mg of salt in it?

5. Replace coffee with tea or green tea. These teas have "anti-oxidant" properties and are good for blood vessel tissue health.

Start with these five solution to lower your high blood pressure naturally. These are steps you can take with out going to a health food store and spending extra money.

Although there are many herbal and other natural remedies to control or lower hypertension, it is important that you start at a basic level first. Once you have mastered these solutions you can move on to herbal remedies.